Peter Craigie demonstrates in this commentary that the biblical psalms express "the most profound of human feelings and insights-prayer, praise, liturgy, wisdom and lament." Through careful analysis of language and form, he communicates both the emotional and theological impact of the psalms as originally experienced by the people of Israel at public worship and in private devotions.

Professor Craigie's translations and interpretations of each of the first fifty psalms apply insights into the Hebrew language and Israel's literature drawn from Ugaritic texts. He provides a careful and critical analysis of various controversial proposals based on these sources for understanding the early substance and later form of the Psalter.

This revision of WBC 19 by Marvin Tate preserves all of Professor Craigie's original exposition and augments it with an extensive supplement that updates the bibliographies and documents the explosive growth in Psalm studies in the last two decades of the twentieth century. Professor Tate's comprehensive additions survey and evaluate new trends in the scholarship on:

Hebrew Poetry

Psalms Exegesis

The Nature of the Psalter

The psalms are central parts of the worshiping life of Jewish and Christian communities, and are the roots of the musical heritage of both traditions. Dr. Craigie's and Dr. Tate's careful analyses will give the reader a new appreciation of the reality that life and faith, history and liturgy, and struggle and prayer are inseparable in the life of the people of God.

Contributor(s)

Peter C. Craigie, Marvin E. Tate

About the Contributor(s)

Peter C. CraigiePeter C. Craigie was Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Calgary and was at work on the WBC volume on Jeremiah 1-25 at the time of his untimely death in September, 1985. He also has written The Book of Deuteronomy (Eerdmans and Hodder & Stoughton, 1976) and The Problem of War in the Old Testament (Eerdmans, 1978), as well as numerous articles on Ugaritic studies. Professor Craigie received the M.A. in Semitic languages from the University of Edinburgh, the Dip. Theol. from the University of Durham, the M.Th. from the University of Aberdeen, and the Ph.D. from McMaster University.

Marvin E. TateMarvin E. Tate is Senior Professor of Old Testament Interpretation at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. As the author of the WBC volume on Psalms 51-100, he was the logical choice to review and update Dr. Craigie's earlier work on this present volume. Professor Tate also wrote Proverbs for the Broadman Bible Commentary, as well as numerous Old Testament-related articles for periodicals and journals. He was a member of the translation team for the Old Testament section of the New International Version of the Bible. He received his B.A. at Ouachita Baptist University and a B.D. and Ph.D. from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has done post-doctoral studies at Oxford University, the Ecumenical Institute of Jerusalem, and the Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research in Collegeville, Minnesota.